Tips for easily getting dog clothes off without much fuss
Recognizing whether your dog actually likes that new dog sweater
At a storytelling event I used to host a couple of years ago, one of the storytellers asked me if I had ever been bitten by a dog in the hundreds of walks I’d completed. I figured he’d assume that large dogs or dogs labeled as aggressive would be the ones to watch out for. But I’ve never had a problem with a Pit Bull or a St. Bernard or any other dog that could out-muscle me. The first dog that ever tried to bite me was a Shih Tzu. The storyteller laughed and said this breed earned its name: Shit-zoo. (As much as I’m obsessed with my mother’s Shih Tzu mix, she’s a handful too.)
With this particular dog though, I hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. I’d been warned that the dog may lose interest in walking during the 20-minute job. Around the 10-minute mark, the dog did just that. It just froze mid-walk and flopped down. I was instructed to guide it back home and play for the next few minutes. When I returned, a maid was vacuuming the floor and a nanny was changing a baby. (Clearly, this was not a household hurting for cash.) My time was up, and I got ready to leave but did a 180-degree turn when I recalled that the instructions were for me to take the sweater off the Shih Tzu. I had no problem putting the sweater on the pup, but the dog snapped at me almost immediately when I tried to take the sweater off.
By the third time, I got one paw out of the front of the sweater but was fed up with the dog trying to bite my fingers. I left a note for the owner, letting her know what happened and why her dog was walking around like I looked with overalls in the ‘90s (one strap down), and left. Neither the walk nor a sweater-less dog was worth the Band-Aid or the doctor’s visit if that dog finally succeeded in biting flesh.
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I just rolled my eyes when the owner gave me a one-star review, promptly blocking that dog from ever being in my queue again. Good riddance.
I hadn’t thought about that dog in years — until my own dog was gifted with a new sweater. Considering my love-hate relationship with dog clothes, I would’ve never bought this sweater on my own. (I did give in with a dog coat my mother bought her once I saw my Hound mix’s reaction to a frigid day and a fuzzy new layer.) I didn’t expect her to like the sweater all that much. But when I tried to take the sweater off after a mid-day walk, she did the same thing as the Shih Tzu. Her mouth sorta nuzzled my fingers like she was telling me to knock it off.
But Junee has a habit of deciding she wants to play fight with random objects anyway. When it rains, she fights with the towel while I dry her off. When I take her collar off each night, she tries to bite the collar. But this time seemed different. She genuinely looked annoyed that I was taking this sweater off. I assumed it was because I kept getting one elbow caught before I could get the sweater off.
So I stepped one leg out and patted my thigh. This is a signal for her to jump onto my leg. She did just that. I reached down, grabbed the waist of the sweater and pulled it toward me the way a human takes a T-shirt off. Within seconds, she was free of the sweater. I smiled. No more elbow tangling. However, she immediately started barking, ran around the room with a case of the Zoomies and started pawing at the sweater in my hand. I’d misread the signals. It turns out she really did want to keep the sweater on, which is probably the same energy the Shih Tzu was giving me. You live and you learn.
I’ve learned a few more things about dog clothes since then, including the best ways to easily take off dog clothes, figuring out when a dog is too hot or too cold, and recognizing the signs when a dog wants pet clothes removed or is ready to make this an all-day modeling moment.